Silken Threads and Crystals

Gentle Reader~~~as the true start of Summer approaches, the days are noticeably warmer and gentle breezes blow, with short, sharp and unexpected showers of thundery rain~~each morning the garden greets me in a glistening garment of silken threads sprinkled with sparkling crystals.  Sometime during the night, spiders spun their magic weaving across the bushes and trees and finest strands of silk float out across the garden.  The dew, like fairies tears, glistens and glimmers~~but wait a while and all disappears as the rising sun warms the grateful earth and all is as if they were never there, now trapped in the memory of my mind, like a ghost of a whisper at dawn~~~

I have only one allium left in the garden now, so it stands, a solitary sentinel of the ranks that once looked so proud and upright amidst the frothy acid green Alchemilla Mollis.  I do so like to photograph it in macro, filling the frame with it's spiky silvery~purpleness as each new day brings more of it's crown of stars to fulfilment.  I just love the green and purple combination~~~

The courgettes {zucchini} are growing from strength to strength each day now and there are ten small plants today ~~~

 

Golden rosebuds burst open, gently kissed by the morning dew ~~~

 

And strange creatures invade the garden too!  This is a Hummingbird Hawk moth Caterpillar ~~~ a scary looking creature and quite the ugly bug, but weirdly beautiful in it's uniqueness too, helping warn off hungry birds ready for a juicy snack ~~~

 

A warty toad ~~~ but I am worried that I haven't seen that many in the garden at all this year ~~~

 

The current bane of my gardening life!  The beautiful, yet so destructive, Mullein Moth Caterpillar~~~such pretty markings, but will demolish my Verbascum {Mullein} overnight!  They are voracious giants too, reaching about four inches long with appetites to match ~~~

 

Oedemera nobilis, also known as the False Oil Beetle, Thick-Legged Flower Beetle on a wild white Morning Glory~~~

 

A well camouflaged moth hides on the stone wall of the cottage~~hoping to remain unseen~~~

 

 

While a big Great Tit watches, waiting to swoop for a feed!

Here are some small and very pretty flowers.  I must find out what they are, for they are very sweet and delicate.  The seed freely in amongst the stones and borders in yellow, pale and deep blue, with miniature sword~like leaves~~~

 

This is quaking grass~~~a prolific self~sower that is now everywhere in my garden!  The original was given to me by my Aunty Non who passed away a few years ago~~~but her gardening legacy grows on in the gardens of many across the village and The Shire~~~

 

Finally, a well earned reward~~~some lovely chocolates, handmade in Wales by Sarah Bunton chocolates ~~~ I especially like the Green Tea in the dainty chocolate teacup!  How novel is that?

On that delicious morsel, I shall leave you for tonight, safe in the knowledge that ~~~ 

~~~A Gardener's Work Is Never Done~~~

Incy Wincy Spider

Gentle Reader, although this photograph is not of the garden, it is of the sky above the garden one lovely summer's eve just this very week . . I found it intriguing the way the fainter "direction arrow" shape clouds look as if they are reflecting in the sky, like a landscape reflects in water.  What do you think?

Just yesterday, I found the first ladybird {ladybug} in the garden.  I am very concerned, for not only is this very, very late to be seeing the first one, it was only one!  I think the prolonged cold winter and lack of a warm spring may have taken it's toll.  I will buy some bamboo later and cut it up to make a bug hotel.

As I was going about moving some pots around, I noticed a leaf all curled up on itself.  I couldn't resist a peek to see what was going on, and deep inside the curl {almost at the base} I saw the teeniest tiniest green spider! I tried and tried to get a good photograph of it, and it was a struggle because the camera kept focusing on the leaf.  The spider is so tiny and so far down, it just didn't want to focus on it, but I persevered and these are the best of the images I captured~

First, a top view showing the curled up leaf, centre, and I measured it to be just under 1cm (so about 3/8 of an inch) across~

and this one shows the tiny spider lurking in his lair~

The pollinating insects are now out in force, as this busy bee goes about his business gathering pollen for the hive~

I love that the Field Poppies are growing and flowering well because I need to gather plenty of seeds.  I will scatter them where I want them to flower next year in the garden and I will also scatter some along the hedgerows when I take a walk along the country lanes~

The delicate, paper~like small pelargoniums have started to open.  Soon the green mounds will be transformed into pretty pillows of perfect pastel pink~

Carnations {pinks} are bursting forth and adding their clove~like scent to the richly fragrant air.  These beauties are from Whetman Pinks, a leading specialist in pinks, and oh! how I wish I could share the fragrance with you, Gentle Reader~and I am cutting small posies regularly for the house to ensure the blooms will keep on coming~

This is where The Gardener takes a welcome break, sitting on the deck chair, drinking a refreshing cup of hot tea, or later in the evening a glass of crisply chilled chardonnay~

The aconitum {monkshood or wolf's bane are some of it's common names} is now shooting up in purple spikes along the borders~

The Frances E Lester rambler is full to overflowing with pale pink blooms and the air is heady with it's deep perfume which fills the house too~

A close up of a bloom~

I think it is time to take a cup of tea now, I shall go and sit in deck chair in the shade of an old apple tree with Alchemilla mollis {Lady's Mantle} in the foreground.  It is a spectacular year for this most versatile and prolific of garden plants~

~~~A Gardener's Work Is Never Done~~~

Mixed Bag Miscellany

Gentle Reader, in the four days since my last entry, there has been a mixed bag of weather.  The wild, wet, and windy weather of the weekend passed and the days have found gentler, kinder conditions, but not without some anomalies, like the bank of fog that swept in from the ocean yesterday morning, only to be replaced a few short hours later with warm summer sunshine that seemed blistering and left me melting with the juxtaposition of temperatures.

One of the bizarre things that seems more prevalent than usual in the garden is a strange little critter called a frog hopper.  Frog hoppers hide beneath a shield of 'spit', a frothy substance they secrete to keep themselves covered and prevent them drying out.  We call this phenomenon 'cuckoo spit' because it generally shows up on plants in the garden around the same time as the cuckoo bird arrives in Britain after it's migration from Africa.  Although they suck the sap of plants, the damage is minimal.

Here is Cuckoo Spit~

and I rinsed it off to reveal the tiny Frog Hopper underneath for you~

It soon replaced the 'spit' so no harm was done!

Every year, the sycamore trees that border my property drop their leaves in Autumn and over several days I am able to go out and rake them up.  I gather them into big bin bags, tie the tops and pierce the bottoms of each back to let moisture drain out.  Over the winter, these rot down to make a rich humus that can be added to soil or used as a mulch to suppress weeds.  I usually harvest several such bags, and once the job is done it is forgotten about until I come to use them.  Yesterday, however, I noticed a bit of a mess by the bags, and on closer inspection some have been torn open, scattering the contents to the wind.  The only thing I can think of that has done this is a badger!  I know there are several holts nearby, so it is entirely likely that one wandered into my garden again, as they have done in the past, in search of juicy worms~

I am still waiting for my runner beans and broad beans to germinate, but am happy to see that I now have three tiny courgette plantlets, so there is hope that there will be something to eat from the garden very soon.  I am preparing the small vegetable plot in earnest now, and today I ventured to turn back the weed killing membrane that I placed over part of the plot late last year.  This is how it looked a few weeks ago, you can see one of the yellow recycled inflatable mattresses I used~

and this is how it looks today after I turned back the two mattresses.  It seems to have worked really well, there are just a few white bindweed roots, squiggling across the surface like long, skinny worms.  They will soon be removed~

If you remember, I mentioned that I am using this area to hold plants for the borders this year, and this is how it looks now, after I planted out five healthy foxglove plants.  They will soon grow and fill out, and I hope they will be a natural weed suppressant~

These are the same plants just a few weeks ago, so they have grown really well~

Gentle Reader, the plants and flowers continue to open and delight, so here are a few for you to see tonight~

A double, cultivated poppy that looks like an old~fashioned ball gowned dancer waiting to waltz~

The fragrant David Austin rose Frances E. Lester, a beautiful, and highly fragrant, rambler that I have pruned into a shrub~it is covered in clusters of these delicate, pink blooms~

Another fragrant favourite, the rosa rugosa that I am making into a small hedge~

and another image of the lovely poppy, with colour singing out against the blue borage~

A peach coloured patio rose which I bought quite cheaply as it had no label.  A bargain purchase, don't you think~

My dwarf clematis, which trails rather than climbs, in a terracotta pot against a sunny wall~

So, Gentle Reader, I have brought you some of the strange, and some beautiful too . . Please stop by again to see how this garden grows, for I have been busy clearing the soft fruit patch and there is now some news to share from there.